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Archives for January 2016

January 26, 2016

On January 26th, 1788, Royal Navy officer Captain Arthur Phillip guided a fleet of eleven British ships, each carrying convicts, to the colony of New South Wales. This date has gone down in history as the “foundation” of Australia. After overcoming a period of difficult settling and problems, the colony began to celebrate the anniversary of this date as the birth of their nation.

January 25, 2016

Rick Perry, the former Governor of Texas who has been running from indictment charges since August 2014, recently endorsed Ted Cruz. Perry has run for the Presidency himself twice, failing in ways that could get him crowned the King of Stupid. Perry claims that he really only has the choice of Cruz and Trump, according to an interview with Politico. So, in short, he’s really only endorsing Cruz because he seems him as “more conservative”. Perry’s endorsement “blesses” Cruz’s already sinking campaign with the longest serving Texan Governor’s support. But lots of people are forgetting something crucially important: Rick Perry, an unfathomably mentally challenged politician, is a criminal.

January 24, 2016

I’ve had quite a few different types of history classes. Some of them are long, drawn out lectures with the teacher droning on and on about the economic expansion of colonial America for what seems like hours. Others have been interactive group-versus-group activities that fall just short of being games. Many, throughout Middle and High School, have been bubble worksheets, coloring books, and word searches. But, something crossed my mind a few days ago. With new advances in technology and design, and with entertainment seeming to merge with information…could a classroom environment be structured using video games?

January 23, 2016

37th President Richard Nixon’s administration is one of the more interesting parts of American History. From his brash campaign for the senate against Helen Douglas to his cutthroat elections in 1960, 1968, and 1972, Richard Nixon manages to remain one of the more memorable presidents in the 20th century. Of course, everyone remembers Watergate, with polls putting him much lower than he should be based merely on that one topic. History isn’t fading, but the public opinion seems to be limited to one subject. This presentation, based from the A-Leveled AICE curriculum, is on the Rise of Richard Nixon, from his first political foothold in 1945 to his reelection as President of the United States in 1972. This was used in a classroom environment, hence the assignment.

January 22, 2016

Wilbur Scoville, the pharmacist who researched peppers in order to put together the Scoville scale, was born on today’s date (January 22nd) in 1865. His empirical measurement system has been used, despite subjectivity, to categorize peppers. While Scoville himself would probably be astounded to know that he’s mostly remembered for his hot pepper experiment, he’s gone down in history as an important scientific breakthrough. Although Scoville was a pharmacist and not a chef, his research and practical work in laboratory settings has made an impact in cooking along with drug making corporations, such as Parke-Davis.

January 21, 2016

While I don’t believe traditional retail is dying, I do believe it’s transforming. The buy-and-sell process is still very well seen even with big online dealers such as Amazon. Instant access is huge for customers. Accessability is huge. Why would anyone want to get in their car and drive somewhere when they can lounge around in their underwear and purchase the next Fifty Shades of Grey or whatever the general population has decided is “good fiction” from the luxury of their own home? Traditional retail is attempting to step into a world of convenience. The conventional store front is evolving into an online webpage.

January 20, 2016

Endorsements are meant to increase support, drum up public awareness, and begin the final stages of primary fighting. Strong, important members of political parties oftentimes hold back they’re opinions until all the scandals that prop up during the early phases of campaigning is over. They wait, watching the candidates before deciding which one is the one for them. A pinpointed, rather mundane process, really. The idea is simple: don’t pick the wrong candidate. Endorsing the wrong candidate is chaos. If they mess up, if they fail, you’re on record for supporting them. This is why so many smart politicians hold back, even opting to not endorse any candidate if nobody looks stable enough.

January 19, 2016

To put it simply, O’Malley just can’t drum up any attention. He has no buzz, no real foundation in public opinion, and no real business running in a race dominated by two incredibly charismatic performers. On one hand, there’s former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — whether you like her or not, you have to admit she’s capable of swaying voters with her style of campaigning. People cheer her name, and all she ever has to say is “women”. On the other hand, there’s Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the grassroots underdog that’s managed to bring massive crowds to become a bit of an Internet sensation.

January 18, 2016

The Industrial Revolution caused several European nations to expand their economies and create new job opportunities. While some European countries, such as France and Germany, eventually did catch on to aspects of the growing Industrial World, the nation of Great Britain industrialized much faster than the rest of them and stood above the rest in industrial growth. Great Britain had several reasons that helped them succeed and industrialize faster than other nations, such as the fact that their population and middle class grew substantially, their coal and iron ore deposits were large and bunched in a close proximity of each other, and that their political policies on loans made it easy for enthusiastic merchants to begin a business.

January 17, 2016

Governor Mike Huckabee has been raging across Twitter ever since God created the Earth in seven days against the Obergefell v. Hodges case in the Supreme Court, which ruled in a 5-4 agreement towards legalizing gay marriage across all 50 states. Of course, an extremist, right wing, hypocrite like Mike Huckabee is sure to be angry at such a progressive movement, which at this point has around 60% popular opinion in the states, making it the majority. However, go look at any other Republican Presidential Candidate twitter feed. You’ll see somewhere around zero to four responses towards the final verdict, none of which are as strongly worded as Governor Huckabee’s.